


Four White Elephants

by thepopeisdope



Series: 12 Days of Christmas [4]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: (kind of?), Christmas Fluff, Christmas Party, Fluff, M/M, Misunderstandings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-17
Updated: 2015-12-17
Packaged: 2018-05-07 07:35:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5448494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thepopeisdope/pseuds/thepopeisdope
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes the perfect gift is also the last one in stock, and when that’s the case, tensions run high.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Four White Elephants

**Author's Note:**

> You know what? Just disregard the titles altogether. Or at least the number in them. Goddamn. 
> 
> Beta'd by the wonderful [Arianna](http://ariwillowtwist.tumblr.com/).

"Have a good rest of your day, Cas. See you tonight."

Castiel blinks after the retreating form of Sam Winchester in surprise. He's seeing him again tonight? That doesn't make sense—it's the last Friday of final's week, so at soonest, they shouldn't see each other again until the start of the next semester in January. 

Huh. 

Castiel shrugs it off and resumes packing up his things. He had been helping Sam study for his philosophy final, since Castiel had taken the same course himself just a year previously, but the table where the two had been sitting is reserved for another group starting in less than five minutes.

The aforementioned group is already standing off to the side in the large study room, shifting their weight around anxiously and eyeing Castiel's table like its prime bounty on a hunt. At least only one of them is giving Cas a death glare, probably in hopes of intimidating him into leaving faster. 

Castiel rolls his eyes at the girl's antics, but slings his backpack across his shoulders and gets out of the way. 

It isn't until Castiel is on the bus back to his off-campus apartment that it hits him. 

Sam invited him to a holiday party on the last day of the quarter. 

Today's the last day of the quarter. 

Son of a bitch. 

He quickly pulls up the text message Sam had sent him with the details a week prior. It gives the address of the house he lives in with his girlfriend and a few of their friends, as well as instructions to wear an 'ugly' Christmas sweater and to bring an inexpensive, funny or odd gift for a white elephant gift exchange. 

Castiel has to type that phrase into Google to find out what it means. It doesn't give him any idea of what he should buy, unfortunately. 

He has a few hours between when he gets home and when he has to leave for Sam's party, but he still leaves for the nearest department store as soon as he's had the chance to get his car from his apartment building. Fifteen minutes later finds him standing just inside the front doors of a Target, wondering what the hell he's going to buy. 

Castiel's feet carry him through the store on autopilot, and he gets the feeling he's not _looking_ for the right gift to purchase as he is _sensing_ where it may be found. He thinks that must be the only way to explain how he came to be standing in the home decor section.

_There_. 

As soon as Castiel sees it, he knows it's the perfect choice for the gift exchange. He reaches to up grab it from the shelf—

His hand bumps into another before it can close over the torso of the white, polyresin elephant figure, and he automatically draws back, an apology at the ready. "Oh! Sorry..."

He doesn't mean to trail off, but he can't help it when he looks up and sees the god among men that he has encountered. Broad shoulders, bow legs, a face so perfect and symmetrical that da Vinci himself would drool, and brilliantly green eyes to round it all out.

For an instant, Castiel completely regrets going into law instead of art, because this man was made by God Himself to be drawn, painted, sculpted, and every possible variation thereupon that someone could think of. 

It takes him a few more seconds to realize that the man is spluttering out his own apologies.

"Sorry, man, I totally didn't see you there. Didn't mean to make it weird."

Castiel has to clear his throat before he can speak again. "You, um... No, sorry. You're fine, neither of us were paying attention."

There's a brief lapse in which they both just stare at each other, drinking each other in. The corner of the man's lips lift with a smile, and Castiel can feel himself mirroring the expression.

Castiel reaches for the elephant again, slower this time. There's only one on the shelf. "Sorry, but I kind of..."

“Wait.” The other man holds his hand out to stop the progression of Cas'. "Listen man, I know we kind of have an awkward situation here, but I actually really need that elephant."

Castiel frowns, leaving the elephant unclaimed for the moment. "I need it, too.”

The man sighs, and plasters on a smile that is far too forced to do anything but set Castiel’s teeth on edge. “Listen, pal,” he says, which is definitely _not_ a good way to start, “I’m running late as it is, alright? I got off late from work, and now I need to get a present for my brother’s party, because I’m supposed to be there in an hour and a half. If you could just make this a little easier on me and find something else to buy, that would be wonderful.”

Castiel gapes at him, but after a moment of shocked silence, his surprise at the other man’s gall gives way to a simmering rage. “I need this as a gift today as well,” he replies sharply. “You can’t honestly expect me to step out of the way so _you_ have it easy, when it would only inflict the struggle to find an alternative upon myself. What makes your time more valuable than mine?”

“That’s not what I said, asshat,” the man says with an annoyed roll of his eyes. “But you know what? Whatever. Doesn’t matter. Can I just have the damn elephant?”

“No.”

The man glares at Castiel like he’s silently willing him to burst into flames, and Castiel sends it right back his way.

Castiel's eyes flick from the man, to the elephant, and back again.

In a flash, he grabs the elephant from the shelf and hugs it to him, protecting it from the other man's view.

The man narrows his eyes. "You've got to be fucking—"

Castiel doesn't wait around to hear more, though, and practically runs to the front of the store to pay for his elephant and get the hell out of dodge. He thinks he hears the man growl that he's a "goddamn selfish douchebag," but he doesn't stop to process it until he's safely back in his car and driving towards his apartment. 

The _nerve_ of that man! What made him think he was so much more important than Castiel anyway? So he got off work late—big whoop. He still made it to the store, so Castiel is sure he'll have plenty of time to buy literally any other item for his _brother's_ party. And speaking of—doesn't the fact that he's going to his brother's Christmas party just mean that he won't be judged as harshly for a dumb gift? Brothers can't decide you're lame and leave you behind; friends can. 

Castiel stews the whole way home, and then he stews some more when he gets there. It's only when he's had a cup of hot peppermint tea that he begins to let go of his anger. 

He's probably taking this too seriously. Even if that other man had been rude in trying to claim the elephant for himself, Castiel was guilty for the exact same thing on the reverse side. The guy's probably just as pissed at Cas for being selfish. 

It's a shame the man had to get so rude about the whole thing, though, because otherwise he was pretty damn hot. Or rather, _really_ damn hot. The things Castiel would like to do with that guy…

What was it that Cas had first called him? Right—a god among men.

A god with a stick up his ass, apparently. Apollo, maybe?

Not that any of it matters anyway, Castiel thinks with a sigh. Douchebag or not, Cas will never see the guy again. It was just a chance encounter at a department store, and they live in a big city. It won't happen again. 

With his thoughts as settled as they're going to be, Castiel sets his empty tea mug aside and goes to find the snowman sweater he knows is tucked into the back of his closet. 

~

The music from Sam's party is audible with perfect clarity from the street, which would be impressive if it didn't fill Castiel with such dread. He's a senior in college and this is still the first party he has ever voluntarily attended. (That one that Balthazar hosted in their dorm room definitely doesn’t count, considering Castiel had gotten the hell out the moment he heard talk of a ‘ménage àtwelve’. The thought still makes him shudder.)

But he’ll brave this today, for Sam. Sam’s a good friend, and he went out of his way to ensure Castiel would accept his invitation. Castiel has only met Sam’s girlfriend Jess once before, and has never met the brother that he frequently raves about. It’s for those reasons alone that he is attending, and not the promise of alcohol or the ‘fun’ gift exchange that he legitimately had to fight to get an item for.

He’s already delayed his arrival as much as he feels comfortable with, and being later would be flat-out rude. With this in mind, Castiel steels himself, adjusts his hold on the box in his hand—cleverly chosen and wrapped to conceal the otherwise-obvious shape of the elephant—and heads into the house.

Unfortunately, the music is even louder on the other side of the front door.

The hallways of the house are not overly crowded, but they are certainly not empty, either. It takes some effort for Castiel to make his way through the throngs of partygoers, his eyes peeled for Sam the entire time. He finds a table filled with presents for the gift exchange before he finds his friend, and deposits his box there before carrying on with his search for a familiar face.

Admittedly, the familiar face that he finds is in no way one that he ever wanted to lay eyes on again.

The man he had fought with over the elephant at Target is standing on the opposite side of the living room from Castiel, holding a glass of eggnog and chatting with a short, red-headed woman in a sweater with a vampire on it. The woman leans in to be heard over the music and say something in his ear, and he throws his head back and laughs. If at all possible, he looks even more beautiful in this relaxed environment than he did in the store.

Castiel scoffs at himself. These aren’t the kinds of thoughts he needs to be having right now. What he _needs_ to do is find Sam, say hello to his girlfriend and brother, and then make himself scarce before he and the man from the store have some sort of confrontation. Or rather, a _second_ confrontation.

Just as Castiel is about to continue on his path through the house, however, all plans of avoidance are shot to hell as the man happens to glance over and catch Castiel’s eye. His jaw goes slack with surprise, and then his entire expression darkens. He mutters a few words to his red-headed companion, sets his eggnog on a nearby table, and stalks toward Castiel.

Castiel, meanwhile, has begun to panic. What does he do? Does he apologize for being an ass and denying the man the elephant? No, that doesn’t seem right—the man was completely rude about the whole exchange, that doesn’t make it Castiel’s job to apologize. So should he… What? Ask him if he found something else to bring? Ask him why he’s at Sam’s party at all, or maybe if he wants to put their differences aside altogether and go home with Castiel later?

…Probably not that last one. He’s freaking out; he can’t be blamed for the nonsense that his brain comes up with when faced with what could very well be a life or death situation.

He thinks he might throw up.

The man comes to a stop a mere foot away from him, his arms crossed and a glare boring into Castiel’s skull. “Fancy meeting you here,” he says flatly, his voice only raised enough to be heard over the music.

“I—Um.” Castiel pulls his hands into the ends of the sleeves of his sweater to give them something to do, and clears his throat. Any argument he may have been forming a moment ago has now completely disappeared. “Hello.”

The man’s lips twitch upward as though he may smile, but forcefully pull down again almost instantly. “So, asshole. Do you _frequently_ make people’s lives a living hell? Or am I just special like that?”

_That_ finally gets Castiel’s rage burning again—this guy’s _got_ to be joking, right?—and a scathing retort sits right on the tip of his tongue, but the sudden appearance of an arm around his shoulders immediately puts out the fire.

“Cas!” Sam shouts into his ear, automatically making him wince. Sam’s swaying pretty badly despite the relatively early hour of the party, so Castiel instinctively shifts to better help support his weight via the arm over his shoulders. He doesn’t think Sam notices. “I’m so glad you _made_ it! I was jus’ tellin’ Jess that I didn’t think you’d come!”

Castiel twists to face his friend as best he can with their odd angle, and smiles to cover his guilt. He truly hadn’t meant to be late enough that Sam thought he wasn’t going to show up at all. “I got stuck in traffic,” he lies, knowing the man is far too drunk to suspect it as being such. “But I made it. I wouldn’t have skipped out without at least telling you first.”

Sam gives him a wide, sappy smile, and before Castiel knows it he’s being strangled by the strongest, most off-kilter bear hug of his life. He’s almost too busy fighting for air to hear Sam slur, “That’s ‘cause you’re _such a good friend_. You’re one of my _best friends_ , Cas.”

The words shock Castiel, and he honestly doesn’t know whether Sam really likes him that much or if this is just the alcohol talking. Either way, it’s a touching sentiment. He awkwardly pats Sam on the shoulder to signal his understanding, which, thankfully, convinces the giant man to release Castiel from the hug.

“Dude, Cas,” Sam says then, looking at Castiel with wide, watery eyes. “You’ve gotta meet my brother! ‘Member the brother I told you about? He’s—” Sam whips his head around to search the room, but stops short when he sees the man Castiel had been talking with, still standing incredibly close to them both. He’s watching Sam with something like surprise and amusement, and he doesn’t shy away from the younger man’s drunken hand when it reaches out to grab his shoulder. Sam continues to Cas, “This is Dean! He’s _such_ a cool guy, Cas, and he’s like, the best big brother _ever_. And he’s an _engineer_! How cool is that! You guys’ll totally love each other, I know it.”

Then Sam pats them both on the shoulder, shoves them a bit closer together, and ambles off through the crowd without a backwards glance, leaving Castiel and… _Dean_ alone in their mutual awkwardness.

Castiel stares off after Sam for longer than he probably should, if only to avoid having to face the man next to him for a moment longer.

This. Fucking. Sucks.

Dean snorts, and Castiel realizes belatedly that he said that last bit out loud. He turns to face the other man, fully expecting their fight to pick up where Sam had interrupted. Instead, Dean is… smiling at him? That can’t be right. He gestures with a flick of his head for Castiel to follow him through the house and out to the back porch. There, with the door closed behind them, the noise of the party is reasonably contained and they can actually hear each other.

Dean stops against the porch’s back railing and turns to square off against Castiel. “So, you’re the ‘Cas’ I’ve heard so much about, huh?” He takes a deep breath and rolls his shoulders, then extends a hand. “Dean Winchester. Nice to meet you.”

Castiel eyes the hand with some suspicion for a long moment before eventually reaching to shake it. “Castiel Novak,” he replies. He tries not to let his thoughts linger on how warm Dean’s hands are, especially against the cold December air that surrounds them. “Are we… What is this?”

Dean raises an eyebrow. “Would you prefer I _don’t_ give you a fresh start here? Because I don’t have to, even if I’m pretty sure Sammy would kill me for not even giving his best friend a _chance_.”

There’s that phrase again. Before he can think better of it, Castiel blurts, “Does Sam really think that highly of me? As a best friend?”

Dean frowns. “Um… Yeah? Did you really not know that? If I didn’t know that he’s crazy in-love with Jess, I would honestly question how much he talks about _you_.” He gives Castiel a weird look. “Do you… not think of him as _your_ friend?”

“No, I do!” Castiel is quick to correct. If Dean is really willing to put the Target incident behind them, the last thing he wants to do is come across as a poor friend for his little brother. “It’s just… I don’t usually do too well with social cues. Or friends, for that matter. It hadn’t occurred to me.”

“Ah.” Dean nods in understanding. “So is it just part of your awkward charm that makes you pull shit like you did at the store today? Ignoring the pleas of a tired man and then running away like a maniac before the situation could even be resolved?”

Castiel feels his face heat with a blush. “Sorry about that,” he mumbles, looking down at his feet. “I didn’t know what else to buy for the gift exchange, and the thought of trying to find anything else was terrifying. I didn’t want to disappoint Sam by showing up with something lame. _That_ can probably be chalked up to my ‘awkward charm’.”

Dean laughs. “Yeah, I’m learning that. Since we’re on the subject, I should probably apologize for being as big of a dick about the whole elephant thing as I was. Sam wanted me to be here early to help him get everything ready, and my boss is a _total_ asshole, who held me late today to bitch at me about some assignment he thinks I botched…” He shakes his head, looking weary. “Point is, I took my personal frustrations out on you, and I shouldn’t have. So… Sorry about that.”

“I’ll forgive you if you agree to forgive me as well,” Castiel replies with an easy smile. This version of Dean is far preferable to the angry douchebag he had met before, and if a little bit of forgiveness is all it takes for the two of them to have any sort of friendship, it’s an easy price to pay.

If Dean’s responding grin is anything to go by, Castiel thinks he might just agree.

Dean steps in a bit closer to Castiel, close enough that Cas can feel the heat of his body all along his front. His voice drops to little more than a husky whisper when he says, “You know, maybe we should start this out right, then. What would you say to going to dinner with me? Right now? As a date, so that we’re clear. I may have spent the day thinking you were a total asshole, but now I know that you aren’t, _and_ that you’re pretty fucking hot, I think it’s definitely worth at least a shot.”

Castiel gapes, completely taken off guard. He wants to accept, _god_ does he want to, but he still finds himself mumbling, “But the party…”

Dean shrugs. “Sam’s already drunk as a skunk. He won’t remember anything in the morning. It would be fine. So, you in?”

It’s a no-brainer, really. Dinner with the hottest guy he’s ever seen in his life, _and_ an excuse to leave the party without ever having had to interact in the first place? Hell yes.

“I’m in.”

~

The next day, Dean has to drive Cas back to Sam’s house so that he can pick up his car, and since they’re there, they decide to stop in and see how the man is faring after his wild night.

Unsurprisingly, the answer to that one is _not well_. He refuses to take his sunglasses off, citing the mother of all headaches as his excuse, and hardly raises his voice above a disgruntled whisper. And they don’t even _see_ Jess, who Sam tells them is still passed out sideways on their bed.

It also turns out that the gift exchange was a drunken mess, and almost half of the gifts are still on the dining room table, unclaimed. Castiel and Dean both find this hilarious, of course, considering the gift exchange was what caused them to hate each other before they even really met, let alone had a chance to start the relationship they’re now building.

It gets even better when Castiel spots a box in the middle of the mess on the table, wrapped in familiar paper. He darts forward to grab it, earning a curious look from each of the Winchester brothers.

Dean raises an eyebrow. “Cas, what are you doing?”

Castiel grins and forces the box into his hands. “Merry Christmas, Dean.”

Dean looks thoroughly confused as he obediently tears into the box, but the moment he sees what’s inside, he laughs so hard that Sam seems to fear for his health. Dean tosses the box away and hugs the white elephant statue to his chest, then steps in to drop a chaste kiss to the corner of Castiel’s mouth. Sam splutters at the sight, but Dean ignores him and whispers, “Thanks, Cas. Merry Christmas.”

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on [tumblr!](http://thursdays-fallen-angel.tumblr.com)


End file.
